Thomas Rüfenacht

Thomas Rüfenacht
Rüfenacht in possession of the puck
Date of birth	February 22, 1985
place of birth	Meggen , Switzerland
Size	180 cm
Weight	85 kg
position	striker
number	# 81
Shot hand	Left
Career stations
2003-2005	SCL Tigers
2005-2007	EHC Visp
2007-2009	Lausanne HC
2009–2012	EV train
2012-2014	HC Lugano
since 2014	SC Bern

Thomas Rüfenacht (born February 22, 1985 in Meggen ) is a Swiss - American ice hockey player who has been under contract with SC Bern in the National League since 2014 . His brother Daniel was also a professional ice hockey player.

Career

Thomas Rüfenacht, who in childhood with his family in the United States had moved, visited at the age of 16 years in Culver in the state of Indiana , the local military academy and also played ice hockey in the junior team. Two years later, he expressed an interest in serving as a fighter pilot for the United States Naval Academy . During this time he finished high school and decided to return to Switzerland . Rüfenacht first played from 2003 to 2004 with the elite A-Juniors of the SCL Tigers , before making his debut for the Langnauer in the National League A during the 2003/04 season . In the following season he was used more often, but the attacker was denied the breakthrough due to the poor athletic performance. For the 2005/06 season, followed by an engagement at EHC Visp in the National League B . There he managed to significantly increase both his operating times and the number of points compared to the previous year. In the same season, the US-American-Swiss dual citizen also completed five matches for a lower-class ice hockey club in Saastal , where he was hired as a loan player. Back in Visp, Rüfenacht made his breakthrough with the Oberwallisern in the 2006/07 season and finished the regular season with 61 points in 44 games, the team's second-best record behind top scorer Terry Yake . In the playoffs he failed with the EHC Visp only in the finals at the NLB champion EHC Biel in six games.

For the following season, the league competitor Lausanne HC signed him . There Rüfenacht built on his previous performances in Visp in the following two seasons and was also one of the team's best scorers in Lausanne. During this time he also acted on short notice as a loan player at HC Servette Genève , whom he strengthened for a few matches during the main round and the playoffs. However, he did not score a point in nine games.

For the 2009/10 season he signed a contract with EV Zug . In his second season, the striker was more noticeable for his duels with opposing players than with scorer points. Among other things, he was given a game penalty in the second encounter of the quarter-finals of the playoffs against the ZSC Lions for a fist fight. The striker finished qualifying for the 2011/12 season with a total of 112 penalty minutes and was therefore the player who spent most of the time in the penalty box across the league. In March 2012 he signed a two-year contract with HC Lugano .

After two years at HC Lugano, he moved to the Bern City Club SC Bern for the 2014/15 season .

Achievements and Awards

• 2015 Swiss Cup winner with SC Bern
• 2016 Swiss champions with SC Bern
• 2017 Swiss champions with SC Bern
• 2019 Swiss champions with SC Bern

NLA statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
Main round	14th	446	97	123	220	631
Playoffs	11	114	19th	31	50	220
Playouts	1	1	0	0	0	0

(Status: end of the 2018/19 season)

Web links

• Thomas Rüfenacht at eliteprospects.com (English)
• Thomas Rüfenacht at hockeyfans.ch

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Aargauer Zeitung SCB provocateur Thomas Rüfenacht: "Nobody has to like me"
2. ↑ drs.ch, ZSC Lions and EV Zug compensate
3. ↑ blick.ch, Geneva vs. Train: 139 penalty minutes